Many children experience growing pains in their legs. Normally, it's nothing to be concerned about, but for one preschooler, the growing pains turned out to be cancer.
Liam Waldron, now 8, loves cars.
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"I mostly like the car company, the Swedish car company, Volvo," Liam said.
For him, it is all about speed, but at 4 years old, bone cancer stopped Liam in his tracks.
"Liam started out with leg pain for a couple days, thinking it was growing pains. We decided to take him in to the pediatrician, they sent us up to get an X-ray and when she came back she had a look on her face and she said there was a large lesion on his left femur," said Liam's mother, Wendy Waldron.
Doctors at the Cleveland Clinic felt an operation called rotationplasty was Liam's best chance at beating cancer and being active again.
"A lot of kids don't opt for that I don't think because of the way it looks, but anyone who does the research will realize that the functionality is amazing," Wendy Waldron said.
The procedure involves amputating part of the leg, above the knee, while saving nerves and vessels. The shinbone, foot and ankle are rotated and reattached to the remaining thigh bone.
"There's a light at the end of the tunnel that we can save a leg, make it a functional leg, and make it such that he can potentially even do sports," said Dr. Michael Joyce with the Cleveland Clinic.
Liam's ankle now functions like a knee. His foot and thigh bear the weight of his special prosthetic leg.
"We got the new prosthetic in January 2017 and he has just taken off since then, plus he's also got cleared to finally run and jump so it's been an exciting year," Wendy Waldron said.
Liam is now cancer free.
"He's happy and he's running and he's having fun with his friends and that's all I could ever hope for," Waldron said.
With physical therapy, Liam is expected to be able to play sports once again.